A True Gentleman
by Rie Sonomura
Summary: As all the comatose students from the Alter Ego Junko incident awaken, everyone has someone that needs them... except for Kazuichi Soda. Or so he thinks. [KazuKoi, with side ships inside. May not be canon compliant to the DR3 animes. For Fluffuary 2020. DR2 SPOILERS (obviously).]


**Next up on Fluffuary: KazuKoi (Kazuichi Soda x Mahiru Koizumi) from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair! AND IT'S A RARE PAIR GOD HELP ME I AM 5EVER IN RARE PAIR HELL.  
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**I have beaten Danganronpa 2, but haven't watched the DR3 animes yet, so no spoilers on those yet, and don't nag me if anything doesn't line up with the canon of said animes. This is just when they finally manage to wake up the comatose students... of course Chiaki was Dead All Along, or rather never even existed in the first place (being an AI) so...**

**Implied HinaMiki, Sondam, FuyuPeko and Akane x Nekomaru, as well as Ibuki & Ultimate Impostor friendship. Ultimate Impostor uses they/them pronouns.**

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**_A True Gentleman_**

The day had finally come. Nearly six months after the Alter Ego Junko incident, the students who survived the ordeal - Hajime Hinata, Sonia Nevermind, Kazuichi Soda, Akane Owari and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu - managed to awaken their friends who had "died" in the simulation, retrieving their consciousnesses from the deepest recesses of the program and bring them back to their comatose bodies.

"Well... it's time," Hajime said, a hopeful tone in his voice.

"They... they'll still be the same people we knew in the simulation, right?" Sonia asked anxiously. "They won't... attack us or anything, right?"

"You remember what Makoto and the others said?" Fuyuhiko tried to put the Ultimate Princess at ease. "They hypothesize that since we emerged from the program with different personalities than our time as Ultimate Despairs, that the program likely did the same to them. They just weren't able to join us right away."

"Hope you're right..." Kazuichi murmured in an uncertain manner as the five watched the occupied pods, waiting for one to open. Within seconds, one of them did.

"Uhhh..." The voice - a female one - groaned. When she reached her arm up into the air, the group immediately recognized the uniform.

Peko Pekoyama was the first such student to recover.

"PEKO!" Fuyuhiko shouted, his emotions taking over as he ran to her.

"Hey Fuyuhiko, don't get too excited!" Akane cautioned him.

"I have to make sure she's okay!" Kneeling next to Peko as she slowly sat up, he waited until she seemed stable enough to talk to her. "Peko... are you feeling alright?"

"I'm... a little dizzy..." Peko murmured before Fuyuhiko gave her a nearby oxygen mask to help her regain her bearings. "Young... Master..."

"I'm just..." Fuyuhiko began, holding back the tears of joy and relief he wanted to shed. "So relieved... to see you again..."

"So you... forgive me?" Peko weakly asked.

"Of course, dummy!" Fuyuhiko softly hugged her.

"But... what about... Miss Mahiru?"

"Don't worry about that for now," Fuyuhiko said, his voice cracking. "Just want to make sure you're well enough to be back on your feet..."

Within seconds, another pod opened. This time, it was Nekomaru Nidai, the Ultimate Coach, who emerged.

"Nekomaru...!" Akane ran to him, immediately offering him an oxygen mask as he sat up.

"Hoho, I knew you'd have my back, Akane," Nekomaru chuckled heartily before coughing.

"Nekomaru... you're still this optimistic, huh...?" Akane started to cry.

"Hey... why ya cryin'?"

Embracing Nekomaru, Akane just wept, "I missed you so much, you big oaf...!" Nekomaru silently hugged her back.

Another one opened - this one containing the Ultimate Nurse, Mikan Tsumiki. Remembering how she went insane and "killed" two students when she suffered from the Despair Disease, Hajime, Sonia and Soda watched cautiously, only for Mikan to just look around with a confused look.

"It's fine." Hajime smiled as he calmly walked over to Mikan.

"H-Haji...me..." Mikan weakly uttered with a sheepish smile before coughing.

"Whoa, don't push yourself," Hajime advised her, giving her another oxygen mask.

"Ah..." Mikan looked at Hajime and blushed as she breathed in the flow of oxygen. "H-Hajime? I... I'm sorry..." She looked down timidly.

"Hey, nothing to worry about," Hajime comforted her, looking her in the eyes reassuringly and placing a hand on her shoulder. "We can all start over now... There's nothing to apologize for." Looking away in a sorrowful manner, he muttered under his breath sadly, "All of us... except Chiaki..."

"Huh? Did you... say something, Hajime?" Mikan timidly asked Hajime.

"...No, it's nothing," Hajime answered her with a smile. "Most of all... I'm looking forward to starting over with you."

"Aaaaaahhhh!" Mikan shouted as the blood rushed to her face, the overexcitement causing her to cough.

"Whoa, sorry," Hajime chuckled, softly hugging Mikan. "Didn't mean to excite you... that's the last thing you need as you recover."

Eventually Peko and Nekomaru were good to stand as four more pods opened. The ones that awakened this time were Gundham Tanaka, Ibuki Mioda, the Ultimate Impostor who posed as Byakuya Togami in the simulation (their real name, age, and gender were a mystery), and Teruteru Hanamura. Peko assisted Teruteru, much to her chagrin as despite awakening from a coma, Teruteru made flirty comments at her before asking about what happened to his mother, to which Peko merely answered, "I don't know... but we'll find out." Sonia ran to Gundham, hugging him tightly before showing him his hamsters, or as he called them, the "Dark Devas of Destruction". They had been taken well care of while Gundham was in the simulation. Nekomaru assisted the Ultimate Impostor, and Hajime left Mikan to continue breathing the oxygen until she fully recovered as he headed over to Ibuki and assisted her. Noticing the Ultimate Impostor still in their Byakuya disguise, Ibuki perked up and started greeting them in her usual Ibuki way before coughing, at which point they told her she can catch up with them once they were both fully recovered.

"Heh..." Kazuichi murmured wistfully, looking away with an appropriate expression. "Everyone has someone they need... but not me. Even Sonia chose Gundham... I couldn't possibly match him in her eyes." Just then, he noticed a lone pod opening.

"Wha...?"

Kazuichi immediately recognized that voice - it was the voice of Mahiru Koizumi, the Ultimate Photographer, as well as someone he respected and admired greatly. Not for innate ethereal beauty like Sonia, but for her strength of character. Mahiru was a very confident, outgoing person who displayed a lot of capability in everything she did and wanted everyone to get along. Sure, her nagging of "You ARE a boy, right?" was a bit grating when they first met, but he remembered the time she helped him sew his jumpsuit at the diner in the simulation like it was yesterday. He remembered how she was pleasantly surprised when he told her he learned how to sew by watching his parents.

He wordlessly ran to her, noticing her coughing with her eyes closed and giving her an oxygen mask.

"Huh...?" Mahiru slowly opened her eyes when she began breathing in the flow of oxygen. Turning her head slowly, she saw the face of the person who helped her.

"Kazu...ichi...?"

"You okay there, Mahiru?" Kazuichi asked her, his voice tinged with a compassionate concern.

"I... think so..." Noticing the stitches on Kazuichi's jumpsuit, she muttered, "Ah, so... that's still there..."

"Hehe, well... technically you only mended my jumpsuit in the simulation, but when I woke up in the real world, I remembered exactly how you did it, and replicated it down to the smallest stitch! Pretty cool, huh?" He grinned boastfully, trying to hide his insecurity. Mahiru only playfully giggled.

"...What's so funny?"

"You're... trying to prove to me that you're capable with that... when you already proved it by helping me just now."

"R-really?" Kazuichi looked to the side shyly. "Thanks... I guess..."

"Hey... Soda." Mahiru looked down with a somewhat pained expression.

"What's up?"

"I... before I 'died' in the simulation... the second incentive Monokuma gave us... I knew what it was trying to tell me, and... I feel bad I never got to make amends..."

"You'll be able to now," Kazuichi reassured her. "I don't care what you did before the simulation. What matters is the now. You'll be able to do that and so much more! I have hopes for us all for the future, y'know?"

Mahiru only smiled softly. "Thanks, Kazuichi. You... really are a true gentleman."

"Whaaaa-?!" Surprised that Mahiru genuinely complimented him, Kazuichi looked away shyly. "You really... think that?"

"Of course!" Mahiru told him. "I'm... very thankful for you, Kazuichi Soda."

"I..." He drew closer to Mahiru, embracing her softly as she hugged him back. "I am, too... Mahiru Koizumi."

_**Fin**_


End file.
